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T-Fal Signature Nonstick 12 Piece Cookware Set

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When it comes to pots, pans, and kitchen appliances (big and small), I am as brand-loyal as it gets. I figure, if I’m going to spend money on something, I want to make certain it’s something that…

  • I’ll love
  • will serve me well
  • will last
  • won’t make me regret it!

T-fal is one of the names I go to again and again and again. I have never bought a T-fal product and regretted it for a second. In fact, each time I use a T-fal pan, I ask myself, “Why would anyone buy any other brand?”

A bit overly-dramatic and flowery, but true.

Oddly enough, I have never (yet) bought a T-fal collection of pans. I always buy them piece by piece which, if we’re being honest, doesn’t make a lot of sense because that’s a sure-fire way to spend more money than if you bought them in a great collection.

The T-fal Signature Nonstick Cookware Set  (12-Pieces) pictured  here is making me see the error of my ways and I can’t wait to add it to my already healthy T-fal collection. I love that this set includes a Dutch oven and griddle – I don’t have either one of these and can’t wait to cook pancakes to celebrate their arrival in their new forever home. I make pancakes, fried eggs, and French toast regularly and a griddle is absolutely the way to go.

T-fal Signature Nonstick Cookware Set Features

  • Set includes: 7.75 inch and 11 inch fry pans, 1 quart and 2 quart sauce pans with lids, a 5.5 quart Dutch oven with lid, a 10.25 inch griddle, and a spoon, ladle, and slotted spatula
  • Dishwasher safe: Easy to clean and dishwasher safe cookware set; Nonstick interior and exterior for low fat cooking and easy cleaning
  • Use and care: Safe for all cooking methods except induction; PFOA, Lead, and Cadmium free. Wash the frying pan in hot water and washing-up liquid to remove any dust. Dry it and rub a little cooking oil into the non-stick coating before using for the first time
  • Heats evenly: With our thermo spot indicator, know when our T fal pan is ready for use; Oven safe up to 350 Fahrenheit
  • Ergonomic heat resistant handles for a comfortable grip; Vented tempered glass lids trap in heat and moisture

The fact that T-fal is easy to clean and dishwasher safe make me love it even more.

See  T-fal Signature Nonstick Cookware Set  (Amazon link) for a lot more details, pictures, and a video explaining the brilliance of the T-fal Thermo Spot. As soon as my set arrives, I’ll post the review. I don’t have to tell you what an AMAZING Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift this would make!


Great New Obsession: Silicone Loaf Pans!

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Silicone Pans

Silicone Loaf Pans

These Silicone Bread Loaf Pans are my newest obsession. Obviously, these silicone pans are available in many colors, from many different companies but these beauties happen to be from SILIVO, sold on Amazon. I’ve always been a huge Amazon shopper, but since the pandemic, I shop almost exclusively online and Amazon is the one I trust the most. They proved their reliability again this past Christmas – of the different online stores I ordered gifts from, they are the only one who had everything delivered in time to wrap and give for Christmas.

I’m still waiting on a few things (that I ordered in November) from Zulily! I know it’s a pandemic and things are slower… but dang.

These silicone pans are everything you hope for them to be when you buy them – they bake perfectly, nothing sticks (HATE STICKING!), cleanup is a breeze, and… to be perfectly honest.. they just look downright gorgeous in the cabinets.

Product Description from Amazon:

  • Set of 2：2 pack silicone bread&loaf pans
  • Multi-Purpose:Size:8.9×3.7×2.5 inches
  • Perfect for Bread, Cake, Brownies, Rice crispy treats, Meatloaf, Cobbler cake, Lasagna, Fruit cakes, Quiche, Pot Pies and more
  • 100% Food Grade Silicone: The silicone cake pan constructed of high-quality Eco-friendly 100 % pure food grade silicone, conforms to the American quality.
  • Non-stick Pan: The flexible silicone and non-stick finish allow for easy and quick release of baked goods and desserts, stain- and odor-resistant.
  • Easy Life: Fridge,Microwave & Oven safe
  • Operating temperature:-20℉~450℉(-30℃~230℃).
  • Easily hand wash by warm soapy or put in dishwasher.

While the Silicone Bread Loaf Pans are ideal for bread (lemon loaves, zucchini bread, banana nut bread, sourdough bread, cranberry orange bread..), my favorite uses may be meatloaf, brownies, and fudge. It may seem unusual to cook brownies in a loaf-size pan, but I had rather divide my brownie mix among two loaf pans than one 8×8 pan – you get more uniform cooking. Nothing messes with a chocoholic’s day quite like baking brownies that are smooshy in the middle and hard around the edges.

Silicone pans, by their very nature, make it all but impossible for brownies to pull off this trick.

I love the same approach to fudge and, again, the silicone beautifully keeps anything from sticking.

(Review Continued Below…)

Silicone Bread Loaf Pans

Silicone Loaf Pans

You can click through to take a closer look at the beautiful Silicone Bread Loaf Pans  shown here. While there, be sure to check out the other silicone cookware and kitchen tools. I am on a mission to cover my kitchen in silicone pans and gadgets – I love them that much.

Testing them out will give me something to do while waiting for my Zulily order!


T-Fal Cookware: Their Non-Stick Pans are a Personal Obsession

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T-fal Non-Stick Fry Pan
This beauty is a personal favorite, my 12″ Non-Stick Fry Pan from T-Fal –the inventor of non-stick! This beauty came from Target, but T-Fal can also be ordered (easily) on Amazon.

T-Fal “Thermo-Spot” technology is something that was new to me, but now I’m completely hooked on it. The Thermo-Spot shows when your pan is ready to use… kind of like the red light that lets you know when your oven is good to go.

It’s amazing to me that someone hadn’t thought of this long ago. Leave it to T-Fal.

I also love that T-Fal Initiatives take the non-stick game to the next level. Seriously, everything slides right off of these pans. I love to make “cheese clumps” for salads and soups – which is simply putting little mounds of shredded cheese onto a skillet and letting them brown and crisp up a little. You’d think these guys would spell DISASTER for clean up, but T-Fal pans, they literally slide right off the skillet and into the dish.

 

As you’d expect from someone who has a food blog, I cook every single day of the week. In fact, when our cats need to find me (to play, feed them, scratch their heads or cater to them in any manner), the first place they look is always the kitchen. Come to think of it, the same’s true for every member of my family… except for the scratching heads part, the human members of my family seldom as for such a thing.

As an avid cook, I have had up close and personal experience with all manners of pots, pans, and cookware in general. If a new cook were to ask me to recommend ONE pan she/he should buy to begin their kitchen collection, I would recommend T-Fal. I love many different pans (including my beloved iron skillet collection), but this is the brand I’d most often recommend.

Why? In a word – perfection. T-Fal cookware is perfect in every single way.

Read more about T-Fal non-stick pans and their ingenious Thermo-Spots on Amazon.


T-fal Non-Stick Fry Pan

The Pioneer Woman’s Stainless Steel Turner: Bought One… Buying Another… With Eyes on Buying a Bunch…

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The Pioneer Woman All Purpose Turner

When it comes to kitchen gadgets, tools, and dishes, it doesn’t take much to make my foodie/cook/food-blogger heart skip a couple of beats. A new spatula, tongs, beautiful coffee mug, or even new wooden spoon (I guess you’ll believe me next time I say it doesn’t take much) leave me positively giddy.

I recently ordered something off Amazon – kind of a late Christmas gift to me, from me: The Pioneer Woman’s All Purpose Turner. My inner foodie and cook wanted to jerk it out of it’s package and put it to use immediately. My inner food-blogger told them both to cool their jets – then she said the words they both have come to hate, “There are pic-tures to taaaake!”

After the obligatory pic-tures were taken, I took it for a test drive with one of my favorite things to cook/eat/photograph – eggs over easy.

The Pioneer Woman All Purpose Turner

Side story: When I was growing up, my mom cooked all of the suppers but my dad cooked all of the breakfasts. It possibly had something to do with the fact that my mom was a night owl who detested mornings. Anyway, he knew how I loved my eggs and we always referred to them as “runny eggs.” (since I was old enough to speak, I wanted them to spill out golden yumminess all over my sausage, bacon, or whatever else was on the plate). I guess I assumed that “runny” was their God-given name, not just a dad-given name, so once we were at a restaurant (I wasn’t very old, in my defense) the server asked how I wanted my eggs. You guessed it, I answered, “Runny” – to which my dad QUICKLY intervened, “Over Easy.” I was really glad he spoke up because the server looked even more loss for words than my husband.

Okay, so I wasn’t that young.

The Pioneer Woman’s All Purpose Turner is beautifully flat so it slid right under the egg without having to be convinced. It has been a dream come true with burgers, veggie burgers, fish, sauteed onions, fried mushrooms, and many runny eggs.

This well-made and great-looking turner is what I’ve always wanted from a spatula/turner and then some. One thing I love (harkening back to the pic-tures perhaps) is that the Pioneer Woman’s All Purpose Turner allows your food to be more beautiful. Why? Simple – because you don’t have to wage war on it in the skillet anymore.

This one qualifies as a MUST HAVE, guys. In fact, it’s even a MUST HAVE if you already have one. I love it so much, I want to add to its family. It’s going to be a large brood.

Runny Eggs


Mega Post of Rachael Ray Dishes, Bakeware, and More

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Rachael Ray Ramekins Set
I’ll admit to a couple of full-blown obsessions in my life:

  • cats
  • polar bears
  • squirrels
  • okay, all animals
  • baseball
  • chai tea lattes
  • coffee
  • chocolate
  • sweet potatoes

Also making the list is Rachael Ray dishes, bakeware, pans, kitchen gadgets… all things Rachael Ray.  I’ve noticed that I’ve begun projecting my obsession onto others.  Not only am I forever telling you about Rachael Ray products you “simply must have…” I’ve started factoring them into my gift-giving.   “Oooh, I should give her a Rachael Ray platter…” “I want to give them a Rachael Ray set of dishes…”

Sigh. I mean well.

It’s just that when you KNOW something is exceptional, you want everyone else to experience it, too.  Trust your girl on this one, if Rachael Ray’s name is on the front of the box, your kitchen will be all the better for it.

Rachael Ray 10
Rachael Ray’s line of beauties come in a gorgeous array of colors. They’ve even added a few colors recently – including a light blue that’s perfect for my oldest daughter’s kitchen. As a matter of fact, yes, I’m trying to snag a billion and one things for her.

Personally, I tend to favor the reds, purples, and deep blues in our kitchen, but I’d certainly never say, “No” to the orange, green, pumpkin, or light blue.

They’re all welcome.

If your kitchen and world of cooking is anything similar to mine – it’s the essence of busyness. At times my kitchen seems like an episode of Iron Chef America. Other times it’s closer to a carnival – but it’s always an aromatic cluster of making, baking, and cleaning it all up.

Rachael Ray Cucina 12 Piece Cookware Set
With all of that going on, dishes and bakeware get chipped, cracked, and sometimes downright shattered.

For whatever reasons (I suspect unicorns may be involved), Rachael Ray dishes and bakeware hold up to whatever my kitchen throws at them.

Is it any reason I’m so obsessed. The fewer things I have to actually replace, the better.

Not only is every item in my Rachael Ray collection sturdy, it performs to absolute perfection. Seriously, I’ve never had a single issue.

Finally, can I just go all girly here and say that one of my favorite things about collecting Rachael Ray dishes, cookware, and bakeware is the colorful prettiness? They’re simply brighter and more beautiful than the rest and, yes…. sometimes looks truly do matter.

Rachael Ray Rise Serving Bowl
As we come to the end of one year and the start of another, I’d love to suggest one thing: Begin your own collection of Rachael Ray merch. Either find the one or two colors that “speak” to you, or go full spectrum and grab every available color. Whichever way you go, you’ll soon be singing the same praises I am.

To everyone who’ll listen…

Rachael Ray Lazy Tongs - Purple
Click through any of the Rachael Ray products in the post above for more information and to find similar items in every conceivable color.

You can also find countless Rachael Ray products on Amazon:

Rachael Ray Round Platter - Red

If you shake a leg (and take advantage of a speedy shipping option), you could even order Rachael Ray products from Amazon and have them in time for Christmas – whether it’s for gift giving or your own table!

Why You NEED the Rachael Ray Stoneware (Review)

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For my recent birthday, my husband gave me the Rachael Ray Stoneware Set shown here. He knows I love, love, love Rachael Ray cookware, bakeware, cookbooks…. okay, Rachael Ray anything. I’d seen these beauties online but I was delighted to see that they’re even more beautiful in person.

The first thing I used mine for was Spinach Artichoke Dip.  They’re also ideal for potato casserole, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, baked spaghetti, chicken casserole, etc. I LOVE that they make your food even more beautiful and the handles are simply a stroke of genius.

Product Features

  • Multiple Use Stoneware – Dishwasher, microwave, freezer safe and oven safe to 500-Degree F for convenience and versatility; The glazed interior is nonporous so foods won’t interact
  • Contemporary Design – Contemporary, playful shape in a vibrant and fun color goes directly from oven to table
  • Wide Handles – Extra wide handle holes allow you to get a good grip from any angle
  • Easy Storage – Both items conveniently nest together to save space in your cupboard

I have mine sitting out on a baker’s rack because they’re too beautiful to hide in the cupboard.  These gorgeous stoneware casserole dishes come in a variety of beautiful, vivid colors.  I wanted red first because I go primarily with the colors red, purple, black, and white in our kitchen. Also, how beautiful will they be at Christmas?!

Make no mistake about it, though, I want all the colors! The orange and yellow dishes would be stunning on a Thanksgiving table but they’re also summer-y too.  You can’t go wrong with any of them. I love the personality of Rachael Ray cookware and bakeware.  They’re bright, colorful, playful, and refuse to take life too seriously.  Put these at the top of your Christmas wish list.  No, scratch that…. buy them for yourself today.  They’ll add even more color and beauty to the holidays that are just around the corner!

Take a closer look at the gorgeous Rachael Ray Stoneware 1-Quart and 1-1/2-Quart Oval Bubble & Brown Baker Set, Red – many other colors (all gorgeous) are available.